This is an Early Access Review and as such opinions and scores are based solely on the state of the game at the time of review and subject to change as development progresses leading up to final release.
It’s been more than 20 years since I went scuba diving, but I can still remember that incredible feeling of discovery, exploring the ocean floor and being surrounded by all sorts of aquatic life. World of Diving for the Oculus Rift captures that feeling almost perfectly from the moment you slip on your mask…I mean headset to the moment you step out of the surf and towel off. Still in Early Access, this FPX is already showing great promise with numerous updates; the most recent adding all sorts of new fish, animations, and bug fixes.
The premise is fairly simple. You are the newest employee at a tropical dive shop, and once you get your feet wet cleaning the pool and doing some other tutorial tasks you will start getting various missions to complete. These can range from treasure hunting and relic recovery to underwater photography and the never-ending job of cleaning up our trash-infested oceans. There are loads of secrets and collectibles scattered about each new area, and all sorts of cool gadgets to play with like a metal detector and a diver propulsion unit.
A cool tablet device is your window to the world when it comes to job assignments and an ever-growing database of ocean life that you get to document with your camera. In addition to your primary missions there are always plenty of side-quests, daily challenges, and other random tasks to keep you busy for hours on end. There is so much to do that I often got distracted from my main mission and started collecting buried treasures or picking up trash. The game even supports co-op and multiplayer so you can share the underwater fun with others.
The graphics are quite good under water and acceptable on dryland – not that you’ll be spending much time there except to clean up the beaches. The variety of fish is impressive and the animations for some of the larger ones get better with each new update. World of Diving never tries to be totally photorealistic, but it does maintain a somewhat realistic art style; at least when compared to the more artsy games like ABZU and Subnautica. There’s not much in the way of music with the exception of the radio in the dive shop, but sound effects are really good and help with the immersion.
My only concern with World of Diving at this point is the sheer amount of time it’s been in Early Access. At the time of this review, we are a week away from the game’s two-year anniversary, which almost seems an abuse of the Early Access program; at least as far as Steam is concerned. My review copy was for the Oculus store which made its first appearance on June 28th of this year, so Rift gamers who don’t use Steam have only had access to the game for two months. There was a fairly significant update to the game just yesterday, so it’s not like the developers have given up on the game, but the longer this game takes to complete the more skeptical the community is likely to become. Even so, I’ve had more than $20 worth of fun with the game in its current state, so anything else they do from here to completion is just icing on the cake.
Scuba diving is the perfect experience to recreate for VR for the simple fact that the headset automatically helps seal the immersion, both with the sensation of having something on your face, and any limitations in FOV. The only way this game could feel more real was if I was hanging from the ceiling in some bungee harness to simulate floating. Thankfully, I don’t need that much reality in my gaming life, and for what it sets out to do, World of Diving delivers an authentic diving adventure with all of the wonder and none of the peril…at least until the Shark Week update drops.
